Once I got in contact with Brissa and the rest of the girls, my retaliation started. We were going to flood all the negative comments with articles and pictures of Violet at charity events, marches, and all the volunteering she had done. Many wouldn't believe the evidence even if it was in front of their faces but we had to try.
Sandra found records of my parents donating to non-profit organizations that focused on helping victims that survived vampire/human hate. To think that I didn't know that.
We had to have the meeting online because our class schedules didn't match up. The replies would go out in waves. First ones would be about articles of Violet helping the community. The second wave would post pictures of Violet at events supporting vampire rights and co-existence. The third wave would probably have the most trouble. They were responsible for fact checking comments and posting the correct information.
There were only a few fans who were in the third wave. But those who were already had most of the information we needed.
"Oh my gosh, look at this!" Amber said, a few days later.
We sat outside in the picnic area, enjoying the warm sun and cool shade. There hadn't been much time to catch up since lunch had turned into extra time to finish assignments.
"What is it?" I asked, skimming my notes.
There was a quiz in math due tonight and I hadn't exactly studied recently. The teacher wanted it turned in before we went home. We weren't trusted not to use our notes at home.
"His Royal Highness posted a video."
As soon as the words left Amber's mouth, we crowded around her. It was a reaction video. In it, the slander clip played then it cut to Alexander.
"Oh no," I muttered.
He looked at the camera and laughed.
The video ended.
"Well," Brissa said. "That's one way to react like that."
"It'll definitely leave an impression," I admitted. "Hopefully, this helps Violet's image."
I sat back down and sighed. While I hated to admit it, this was my fault. No one would dare to slander Violet if I hadn't tried to become part of royal family. And yet, I knew there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn't control what people thought or wanted to believe. All I could was roll with the punches.
"How are you holding up?" Amber asked me. "It must be tough for you with your parents being attacked."
"I don't even know anymore," I replied. "It's wrong that people are going after them when all they've done is been supportive of me."
"Don't worry," Brissa said. "It'll get cleared up in no time."
"I hope so."
I didn't have enough time to worry about Alexander's response. Once I got home that evening from Mr. Adam's lessons, I received over a hundred emails. My parents came home half an hour later to find me in the living room.
"Rin?" Mom asked. "Are you alright?"
"The reservations for the ceremony have come in," I said, looking up.
"Good," Mom said.
"Not good," I told her.
"What's wrong?" Dad asked, walking into the living room. He sat on the couch.
"Well, with the website, I thought I had it where replies would be sorted according to whether they were attending or not, but it didn't. I don't know what happened. Now, I have to manually look through the replies and figure out who is attending and who isn't."
"Let me whip up something," Mom said, "then we can help you."
Dad threw a frozen pizza into the oven. After a quick dinner, we settled in the living room. Mom created a spreadsheet while Dad went through the emails. On my end, I started sending replies to all the emails confirming their reservation.
"I might have not set it up correctly," I kept saying. "But I thought I did? What if someone hacked it?"
"Hacked?" Dad asked. "What?"
"Yeah, like Lady Hargrave hired a hacker to mess with my website so I have to suffer."
Mom made a noise. "That's a little farfetched, don't you think?"
"But she hates me."
"She doesn't hate you," Mom said. "She doesn't want you dating her son."
"So, she hates me."
"I'll bake you some brownies," Mom said. "That might make you feel better."
Brownies did sound nice. She hadn't made them in a while. But the way she said it.
"Dad, I'm not being too suspicious, right?"
Instead of answering, Dad busied himself in more emails. So, he did think I was overreacting. Groaning, I sprawled across the floor. Everyone thought I was crazy.
"Rin, we don't have time for this," Mom said. "We're not halfway through the emails."
Sighing, I sat up again. "Okay. Let's keep working."
Dad suddenly gasped.
"What?" Mom and I asked.
We joined him on the couch. There we saw it: Lady Hargrave's reservation. She was attending the event.
"So, it didn't get lost in the mail," I muttered.
"Even if it did," Mom said, "she would probably show up and make a big scene."
"The headline would read 'A mother rejected'," I joked.
"Emily," Dad scolded. "Rin."
"She's mean, Dad," I reminded him.
"Then we need to treat her better than she treats us," he said.
"She has her lackeys accusing you two of being frauds and slandering you," I told him. "This is treating her nicely."
"We don't know if she's behind that," Dad said.
"Who else would target you, Mom, and Violet?" I asked. "Let's be honest, if it was just Violet then, I'd say it could be anyone else. But you and Mom? It has to be Lady Hargrave."
"The ceremony isn't far off," Mom said. "I doubt she'll do anything else before then."
I sat back on the couch. "I was hoping she wouldn't have time to plan anything at all."
"Think of it this way," Mom said. "With this current slandering going on, you and the Royal family have all the attention right now. It's why we probably have so many guests attending. Lady Hargrave's plan is helping us a lot."
I hadn't thought about it that way.
"So she gave us an advantage," I said. "She won't want us to generate more interest so, you're probably right, she won't do anything else."
"Good," Dad said. "Now that that's settled, let's finish up. I'd like a break before going to bed."